US Senate: Unusual Coalition of Interest Groups Combine to End Ethanol Subsidies

For Immediate Release

US Senate: Unusual Coalition of Interest Groups Combine to End Ethanol Subsidies

WASHINGTON - On Tuesday, June 14, 2011, the Senate is expected to vote on an amendment introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, which subsidizes the production of ethanol. On March 9, 2011, a coalition of organizations representing issues traditionally at odds with one another drafted a letter voicing their support for ending ethanol subsidies. Included in the coalition are organizations such as the Sierra Club, Oxfam America, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Restaurant Association, and assorted meat, poultry and dairy producers. The subsidy repeal is opposed by corn growers and ethanol producers, pitting alternative energy interests and environmental policy groups against each other. The amendment is identical to S. 871 - Ethanol Subsidy and Tariff Repeal Act, also introduced by Coburn.

Interest groups that support this bill gave 17 times as much ($21,903,228) as interest groups that oppose this bill ($1,261,285)

Campaign contributions to Senators from interest groups in Support of the amendment can be found here.

Campaign contributions to Senators from interest groups in Opposition to the amendment can be found here.

Methodology: Includes reported contributions to congressional campaigns of Senators in office during the 112th U.S. Congress, from interest groups invested in the vote according to MapLight, January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2010. Contributions data source: Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.org.

Further

With the toxic Bibi circus in town - cue talk of "tentacles of terror" - find hope in the extraordinary Combatants For Peace, a joint effort by Israeli and Palestinian veterans of violence who've laid down their guns to fight for peace. Led by a former IDF soldier and Fatah militant who both lost daughters to the conflict's "unrightable wrongs," they insist on the need to "hear what is painful" and "talk to your 'enemies'...Partners for peace always exist. You only have to look for them."